Carnival Corp. yesterday announced the extent of fixes needed to ensure its 101-ship fleet
avoids reliability problems that have caused high-profile headaches in the past few years.

The price tag was giant: up to $700 million, or more than half of the world’s largest
cruise-ship company’s profit last year.

Upgrades to Carnival Cruise Lines alone — which address emergency power, fire safety and
operating redundancies — are expected to cost more than $300 million, the company said. In
February, the Carnival Triumph was left powerless in the Gulf of Mexico with thousands of
passengers aboard following an engine room fire. For five days, the ship was towed to land as those
aboard dealt with uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions including a lack of air conditioning, hot
water and working toilets.

That followed the disabling fire in 2010 on the Carnival Splendor.

“We’ve had two cruises that have not been good experiences for our guests; that’s two too many,”
said Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill. “We’re making this effort because we are
the biggest cruise line in the world. If we’re not going to lead the way and say we’re going to
provide a great guest experience every time, I don’t know who will.”

Cahill spoke to
The Miami Herald from London yesterday before parent company Carnival Corp. was to hold
its annual shareholders meeting.

The fixes detailed yesterday deal with fire prevention, operating redundancies and backup power.
Doral, Fla.-based Carnival said just over a month ago that it was conducting a fleetwide review,
and announced the first phase of the assessment on March 19.

But cost estimates announced earlier were much lower: $80 million for expenses related to the
Triumph and an additional $40 million in 2013 for repairs related to the review.

To ensure there is enough power to operate toilets, fresh water and elevators in case a ship
loses power, one additional emergency generator will be placed on each of the cruise line’s 24
ships over the next several months, the cruise operator said.

The cruise line eventually will replace those temporary generators with permanent ones. The
additional backup generators should also provide power for storage of cold food, cooking
capabilities and Internet and phone communications.